Ole: They Put Me With Keane To Toughen Me Up

May 16, 2011

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has reflected on a time during his Manchester United career when he started to suffer from a lack of confidence.

“It’s incredible how important confidence is,” he said. “I had very low confidence, I thought too much in periods. They put me on the team with Roy Keane on every training for a month to toughen me up. Roy yelled at me and they wanted me to respond. Finally I got enough and yell back. After training, I asked the coach why I was placed on Keane’s team all the time. ‘We want you to stand up for yourself,’ he said.”

After believing he had worked hard to battle against his lacking confidence, after being told by Ferguson that he would get to play and show off in the next few weeks. With a game coming up against Southampton, Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were all called into Ferguson’s office. He said he would start with Sheringham and Cole in the next game. “Everybody happy with that?”. The other players nodded, stood up and walked out of the office. Solskjaer was sitting. “What’s up son?”. “I am not happy with it. You said you’d give me the chance, you challenged me, now is your chance.” Ferguson looked at him. “Okay, go and get Teddy for me.”

Solskjaer started the next match. He stayed at United for the rest of his career.

Wow, that was an amazing story. It's the kind that you don't get to hear all the time.

One of our class of 99 should write a book named Eye of the Tiger: Spending Time with Ferguson and Keane.

Imagine sharing a room with Sir Alex and Keane on the eve of the away leg against Juventus. Damn, that would make me jizz my pants.

That interview also precisely states why I thought for long periods of time that Keano was the perfect replacement for Sir Alex. Of course, Roy has now proved that he still has a long way to go to understand the nuances of the game and "get" the managerial skills required (Keane would've probably told Rooney to fuck off in no simple terms, for example :lol: ). But, in terms of character, Keane is as close to vintage Fergie as you can get.

OFF TOPIC: The ABUs are starting to eat crow.
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/blogs/mirror-football-blog/Mark-Lawrenson-Opinion-It-s-tough-to-admit-but-Manchester-United-s-Alex-Ferguson-is-above-Liverpool-s-Bob-Paisley-and-Bill-Shankly-in-the-pantheon-of-great-British-bosses-article736161.html